Mozambique: Attorney-General determined to stop abuses in protected zones – AIM report

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Mozambique: Attorney-General determined to stop abuses in protected zones – AIM report

10:26 CAT | 25 May 2022

All photos: Gabinete de Comunicação e Imagem de Inhambane on Facebook

The Mozambican Attorney-General, Beatriz Buchili, says Mozambique must not continue to register illegal constructions in totally or partially protected zones, some of them with licenses granted by the relevant bodies, but through schemes of corruption.

“We cannot continue to have situations of building in protected areas, on dunes and in mangrove forests, even though they may have DUATs (land use titles) and licences granted by the competent bodies, often obtained through corruption, in clear violation of the law”, warned Buchili.

She was speaking on Monday, in the southern city of Inhambane, at the opening of a meeting of the Coordinating Council of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Buchili stressed that the consequences of illegal construction “include loss of human lives, and of infrastructure”, and called for a more proactive role by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

“We have to strengthen the capacity to intervene in order to meet the challenges in terms of controlling legality, preventing and fighting crime, managing public affairs, and defending collective interests”, she declared.

Mozambique, she highlighted, faces major challenges in preventing and combating organized and transnational crime, such as terrorism, money laundering, corruption, kidnapping, drug trafficking, and illegal immigration, as well as protecting public health, consumer rights, and historical, cultural and architectural heritage.

A plurality of attributions

“We want, therefore, stronger action from the Public Prosecutors, in coordination with local governments, municipalities, and communities, in order to put an end to acts that violate the law”, she said.

According to Buchili, the reductionist view that places the Public Prosecutor’s Office only in the exercise of functions of criminal law is stuck in the past. Nowadays, a plurality of attributions is conferred on the Mozambican judiciary.

She also urged that, at this Coordinating Council, the participants must define concrete strategies that “allow us to improve our performance, always based on the guidelines defined in our Strategic Plan, such as the control of legality; procedural intervention; legal information and education; and international legal and judicial cooperation.”

In the context of preventing and fighting organized and transnational crime, the challenges are, according to Buchili, enormous, as these crimes pose a threat to public order, security, and tranquillity – fundamental values for Mozambique’s economic development.

“The recent creation and effective implementation of the Central Offices for Combating Organized and Transnational Crime and for the Recovery of Assets, along with expansion of the Anti-Corruption Offices, will reinforce our action and intervention capacity, through the specialized training of magistrates and investigators from the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC)”, she explained.

This session of the Coordinating Council, which closes on Friday, is taking place under the slogan “For a Public Prosecutor’s Office Intervening in Defence of the Democratic Rule of Law.”